Happy Birthday Franz Marc!

Franz Marc

Today is the birthday of German Expressionist Franz Marc (1880 – 1916) He was one of the founder members of the Der Blaue Reiter circle. This group formed in Germany in 1911, lasted only until 1914 and included Wassily Kandinsky, August Macke and Lionel Feininger among others. The concept was to spread spiritual truth through art – blue being a colour associated with spirituality. The artist’s believed that through colour an emotional language could be understood – just like the keys in music.

I seek to heighten my sensitivity to the organic rhythm in all things, and to achieve a pantheistic empathy with the trembling and streaming of the blood in nature, in trees, in animals, in the air.

Der Wasserfall by Franz Marc

The artists experimented with Primitivism and Cubism and Fauvism, moving more towards Abstraction. The Blaue Reiter ceased when Kandinsky and Marc were killed in the War and other members were sent back to Russia. Futurist Robert Delauney was a major influence of Marc’s work, as his work became increasingly more abstract.

Tower of blue horses

Marc is well-known for painting animals. But something sad seemed to have happened which completely changed the way he saw them in his later paintings. (read here). He no longer idealised them as he had once done, imbuing them with a pure beauty. It seems that he became disillusioned with humanity, including animals. Perhaps he had a premonition of the fate which awaited him during the war.

You can see the cubist influences there – but also the divisionism of the Futurists. This reminds me, I must write about those violent young men some time. The Fate of the Animals in particular is an amazing painting! So many artists and not enough time,,,,,.

It certainly does! Man always finds something higher than the devastation he’s surrounded with (both of his own making). This state of flux always seems to be very beneficial to art in some way. Thanks for visiting.